the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House

Since 1863... 
Where San Francisco begins... 
and Popovers(!) end... 
in my belly!

https://cliffhouse.com/bistro/ 


Place: the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House

Location:  1090 Point Lobos 
(at the end of the Earth/Ocean Beach)

Hours: open for breakfast Monday - Saturday at 9:00am, Sunday at 8:30am

Meal: Sautéed Vegetable[1] Scramble ~ scrambled eggs, red peppers, tomatoes, scallions, button mushrooms, melted goat cheese, served with fresh fruit and roasted potatoes; a small glassa tomato juice (I was planning on ordering a "Virgin Bloody Mary", but my astute waiter/server-person guy, Daniel, warned me that their Bloody Mary mix has clam juice already in it... ewww... now why would anyone do that to perfectly innocent tomato juice?!); and, as always (and one of the main reasons that I like to go back there a few times a year, anyway), a basket of (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!)[2]

https://cliffhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/BloodyMar-e1490546121250.jpg

(As can be seen in the above photo-link, this breakfastary cocktail is a side dish all on its ownsome.)


To finish off the early-season workout of my Breakfastary Starting Rotation, I normally like to close-it-out at the Bistro Restaurant at Cliff House (see last 'blog-entry from Sunday, January 28th, 2018).

They really only offer five different breakfast dish choices that are either stupid vegetarian-friendly or can be made so with the simple omission of one or two types of dead, decaying animal flesh, so I have had each probably several times (as in probably twenty or more severals) already over the past twenty-plus years that I have been eating at the Bistro Restaurant. Well, they do have a dish called "the Johnson Omelet" ~ made with Dungeness crab[3], avocado, and sour cream ~ that I have never tried before; however, if I were ever to order it (sans the dead, decaying marine insect stuff), they would probably have to rename it "the Little Richard Omelet".

Because I was once again lucky enough to be sitting at an ocean-viewing window-table, I kept an intent watch for any migrating Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). My friendly, informative waiter/server-person guy, Daniel, also informed me that there have been many sightings recently of these Quasimodo-type great fishes (and just a little ways off Seal Rocks, too) making their Spring-break trek up North. However, I was not lucky enough to spot (or stripe) any of them this morning (h*ck, I am just lucky to be able to see as far as Seal Rocks).

There were only two (World) Famous Cliff House 
Popovers(!) in my basket this morning. That really did not matter as those proved to be the perfect amount for my appetite today (besides, if you ask, they will always bring you more at no charge... for free even).

This is one of my more favourite dishes that is available for breakfast at the Bistro Restaurant. I suppose that even if they did not already offer their (World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!), this would still be return-trip-worthy (probably just not three to four times a year, though). And if they ever added Kalamata olives to this mess, it would definitely put it "way over the top" for me. There were only two roasted potatoes (halved) as a side this morning, which was also probably enough for me, but more potatoes is always welcomed. (Should that be "more [potatoes] 
is... " or "more [potatoes] are... "? My grammar and grampar never really explained this stuff to me.)

Today's fresh fruits consisted of: strawberry (I am using the singular here as there was just one half-strawberry in the pile), cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew melon, and grape (again, singular, as in just one, but it was a whole one, not a half).

the Bistro Restaurant only has Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce (Original Red Sauce) for use as a condimentary supplement. Knowing this (See? I have been to more than one public performance featuring bronco-riding, calf-roping, steer-wrestling, and Brahma bull-riding at this here particular establishment.[4]), I used some of my own Palo Alto Fire Fighters 
XXX Ghost Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Brian! And, thankfully, I only have about three to four doses remaining in this particular glass bottle-soldier.) on the potatoes and some Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce (Thanks, Cindy & Greg! There is still about three-quarters left in this bottle, though.) judiciously all over the scrambled mess and even a few drops (five or six) into the tomato juice (to kill any of the d*mn clam juice... just in case it had infected it, too).

Hollywoodland Spotlight of the Day

Today's Hollywoodland Highlight moment focuses on one Margy Reed (better-known-as Martha Raye). This autographed photograph was on the wall (about half-way up... or, if you are a pessimistic acrophobe, about half-way down) on the other side of my table. I think I probably remember Martha Raye more for her cameo-role appearances on TeeVee in the 60's and 70's than for her actual movie-starring roles. (We won't bother to mention those embarrassing Polident® commercials from the 70's and 80's that she also did.) I do know that I have seen her in both the movie "H*llzapoppin'" (1941) (which also had some guy named "Samuel Horwitz" in a supporting-role) and the Abbott-and-Costello movie "Keep 'Em Flying" (also 1941), where she played a dual-role as twin sisters (there were no wayward members of the Three Stooges moonlighting in this one, though). 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0713106/



Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Sautéed Vegetable Scramble ~ 6.7;
(World) Famous Cliff House Popovers(!) ~ 8.2

___________________

1. I am particularly pleased that they have the good sense to use the full word "Vegetable" and not that ubiquitous and utterly odious moniker of "Veggies" (uggh!).

2. For those of you that are in the "uninformed" category, Popovers(!) are an American version of Yorkshire pudding and similar batter puddings made in England since the 17th century.

And if you are even in the "yet still more uninformed" category, there is this information from our friendly friends at WikipediA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire_pudding

3. Dungeness crab's common name comes from the port of Dungeness, Washington. I never knew that before, but I do not think that I have ever eaten one of these in my entire life. Even back when I still ate "meat", I was never much of a fan of any of the dead, decaying marine insects, anyway.

4. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/etymological pointer of the day:

The word "rodeo" comes directly from the Spanish word "rodeo" (See? Sometimes this cunning-linguistics stuff ain't always cirugía de cohete or ciencia del cerebro.), basically meaning "round-up". The Spanish word is derived from the verb "rodear", meaning "to surround" or "go around," used to refer to "a pen for cattle at a fair or market," derived from the Latin "rota" or "rotare", meaning "to rotate" or "go around".